


Together Again

by Rambler262



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: 4HW, F/F, Infidelity, Old Wounds, and is complicated as hell, and some m/m, but the primary focus here is the 4hw, it just takes time, kind of angsty sometimes, not really kayfabe, polyamourous, serious on the infidelity, there is some f/m content, they will all be together
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:13:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22597618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rambler262/pseuds/Rambler262
Summary: The Four Horsewomen had been so close once, and maybe it had felt like more than just friendship. Their bond had altered the courses of their lives and they should have been tied together forever--and they still are, but it feels like other people are the ones doing the tying. It feels like they've lost each other along the way, and it's starting to feel like that's a bad bad thing.orThe 4HW have been busy, and Charlotte and Becky haven't really been paying attention. And then Bayley gets in a bar fight, video of it goes viral and for some reason Dean Ambrose was there? And when Charlotte and Becky try to get answers, the 4HW have to start confronting the nature of their relationships with each other.
Relationships: Bayley | Davina Rose/Becky Lynch | Rebecca Knox, Bayley | Davina Rose/Charlotte, Charlotte/Becky Lynch | Rebecca Knox, Dean Ambrose | Jon Moxley & Seth Rollins | Tyler Black, Dean Ambrose | Jon Moxley/Renee Young, Sasha Banks/Bayley | Davina Rose, Sasha Banks/Bayley | Davina Rose/Charlotte/Becky Lynch | Rebecca Knox, Sasha Banks/Becky Lynch | Rebecca Knox, Sasha Banks/Charlotte
Comments: 24
Kudos: 54





	1. The Bar Fight

**Author's Note:**

> I have no explanation for this at all, but there are some things you need to know before reading. Some details will be wrong because I only started watching this stuff like 3 months ago and I'm playing a lot of catch up. Timelines might be funny and I might be seeing things that aren't there or twisting facts around to suit me. And they're playing characters on a screen, the shows are scripted but plans change on the fly and on a whim just like real life!
> 
> None of this is meant to disrespect the relationships these women have with each other or their significant others in real life; this is some wild, convoluted shit my brain came up with. With that being said, the only IRL relationship will be Becky/Seth. Sasha will be married, Charlotte will be dating someone, and Bayley will have been engaged but I'm not using their IRL partners.
> 
> Pretty easy to guess that there will be some infidelity, I don't need judgement or criticism for that, don't like it don't read it there are other options for you.

“So are they gonna make her drop the belt in a match or are they gonna hang her out to dry?”

Becky had to do a double take when she realized Alexa Bliss had not only chosen to sit across from her, but was in fact trying to engage her in conversation. She was so shocked she completely missed the question.

“‘Scuse me?”

“Bayley! C’mon, you have to have heard from her by now. You’re little horsewomen group chat must have been a nightmare last night and given that it’s almost noon she has to have heard from management by now. So spill, champ. What’s the plan?”

Becky looked at Alexa as if she had grown two heads. Her flight had gotten in at three that morning, she had arrived at the hotel after four, and had only managed a restless couple hours of sleep before Seth had woken her for a trip to the gym and breakfast. She had sat down in the hotel cafe/bar with her laptop in hopes that she could get through some paperwork she’d been putting off before media her obligations began but she’d mostly just been zoning out since she settled in. Becky was exhausted to say the least, and given that Alexa was already not one of her favorite people, she did not have the patience to be polite.

“What on earth are you on about? Why would Bayley be dropping her belt and why would management be calling?”

It was Alexa’s turn to scrutinize Becky. “Do you really not know? Dude, I get that you’re ‘The Man’ or whatever, but you really should check the group chats once in a while. Does Rollins not check either? That just seems irresponsible. What if something—“

Becky tuned out as Alexa began ranting about the importance of Champions being in the know about the locker room going ons and the just the general need for coworkers to keep up with one another in their industry. Becky had never been very active in the company group chats, whether it be the collective group or the women’s chat, she kept the alerts muted. She was known to check in occasionally on her division’s chat, just to see what her challengers might be talking about, but that was it. When she was interested in conversation or the real dirt on the locker room, she consulted the Horsewomen in their private chat, though she couldn’t recall the last time she’d gotten an alert from that particular group…

“Alexa. One last time. What are you on about? Without the lecture, please.” No use digging through a the company group message if it was “blowing up,” especially if Smackdown’s own head cheerleader/gossip was all too ready to tell her to her face.

“Get on twitter.”

“Why do—“

“Just get on twitter and check the trending page, pretty she’s still in the top twenty at this point.”

Becky pulled out her phone and quickly began to scan the top United States trends and sure enough, sitting at #18 was ‘Bayley’. She clicked quickly, scared though she was to see what could possibly have Alexa this animated in regards to the Role Model.

“I don’t think she ever hit number one, think she peaked around six or seven.”

Becky scrolled through the first few tweets that mostly consisted of things like “IS THAT BAYLEY??!!?” and “wtf lol p sure that’s Bayley” before finally clicking on the video that most of the tweets were quoting with.

It was a short clip of about 13 seconds, it started in the middle of what appeared to be a bar fight. The lighting wasn’t great, as is the norm in bars but she could see that one woman appeared to be on top of another in a mounted position raining down punches. Becky thought that the woman certainly resembled Bayley but was not sure it was really her until the woman jumped up from the mount, dashed a couple steps to what looked like a low band stage and jumped off the step to drop a stiff elbow on the woman. Every step had solidified the thought that this was Bayley, and it was capped off by the half second shot of the woman’s face mid stride. All Becky could think was, “What the fuck?”

“Hold on, I can send you the link to the full video, that’s the exciting bit because she literally left mount to do some fancy shit instead of just staying on top of the woman. You really don’t know about this? So you can’t tell me why she just laid this woman out? Not a clue? Or why she was out with Ambrose?”

Becky felt once more like she’d been hit by a chair, twice. “What are you talking about, Ambrose is there?”  
Alexa took slid her own phone over to Becky to show her tweets with screenshots from the video. “The longer videos have shots of his face, but that’s him in the background fighting with a couple of guys closer to the bar. Anyway, after she hits the elbow she gets back up and she and Ambrose take off. Satin posted the video first and is saying all kinds of things about it but you can hardly take what he says seriously, zero credibility there.”

“Do you know when this happened? Is it an old video or did this happen recently?”

“Your guess is probably better than mine but if you don’t know anything about it it has to be new, right? Bayley would have mentioned something, right?”

Alexa’s phone pinged with a new notification from a group chat.

“Naomi says to check out Renee’s insta story.”

Becky quickly opened instagram and clicked through to Renee’s profile.

|=|

_Renee starts talking to the camera, she’s dressed in workout clothes with her hair pulled back in a pony and her face is sweaty._

_“Good morning everyone! Lot going on this morning, very exciting stuff not at all what I was expecting to wake up to, but I want everyone to know that I’ve seen your tweets and messages and the tagged videos on Instagram about last night and I thought you all should know that I did what a lot of you were advising me to do—I kicked Bayley’s ass!” Renee shifts her phone from the straight on shot she had been shooting in, raising her arm so that the camera shows Bayley laid out on the ground behind Renee, also dressed to workout. “At cardio! Apparently all that cross fit doesn’t quite prepare you for a proper long distance run._

_“I appreciate all the concerned tweets and the intense investigations you’re all launching but the reality is that Bayley is not only Jon’s friend, but my friend, too. They facetimed me before they went to the bar and they were all too excited to wake me up when they got in last night,” Renee had lowered the phone to a normal angle at this point as she continued her impromptu vlog. “As far as what happened at the bar or anything, I obviously was not there and it’s not my story to tell. I will say that I will be tuning in to Smackdown tomorrow night to see how this all shakes out and that next week will be a very interesting WWE Backstage._

_“Now that that’s all settled, Bayley and I are gonna go kill some breakfast I think, right Bay?” Bayley popped onto the screen over Renee’s shoulder._

_“If I don’t get a breakfast platter in the next half hour…”_

_“You threw up twice on our run.”_

_“Just means more room for that breakfast platter, let’s go lady!”_

|=|

“That was… I mean that explained nothing in fact I think I just have more questions now. Like that really was Ambrose and Renee said they’re friends and that’s just super weird. And Bayley spent the night at their house? If Renee said tune in tomorrow then Bayley had to have already talked to someone in management but that still doesn’t mean that she’s keeping the belt. So what she’ll address the universe and explain? Have you really not heard anything? Not even a text from Triple H or Stephanie?”

Becky tuned Alexa out as she continued. What the hell was happening? Bayley had been in a bar fight—Bayley had won a bar fight! Becky felt like she’d woken up in some parallel universe, or maybe she was just having a bizarrely vivid dream. It wasn’t even that things didn’t make sense it was that every event was just random and wild. The Bayley Becky knew was not violent or confrontational, and certainly was not rowdy. They’d had some wild fun back at NXT but it had been Charlotte, Sasha or her to instigate the crazier nights. Becky had seen Bayley properly drunk less than a handful of times in all the years they’d known each other.

Becky opened her messages and fired off separate texts to Bayley and Charlotte.

To Bayley she wrote: Dude what happened last night are you okay?

To Charlotte she texted: Have you seen the video of Bayley in a bar fight? And have you spoken to her or Sasha lately??

Bayley got back to her first.

|=|

Oh im all good dude  
people are blowing this all out of proportion  
im fine i talked to H and steph and Im explain ing everything tomorrow

I saw the video Bay, and I don’t know what you think people are saying but this doesn’t seem like you, are you sure everything is okay?

lol i promise Im good dude  
things got heated last night but it wasn’t anything crazy  
I handled myself fine

What did H and Stephanie say? And was that Ambrose there with you??

They told me I get to explain myself and the crowd decides my fate  
and Jon and I caught a concert together nbd  
we went to the bar after

So what are you telling the crowd? And how exactly do they want you working the crowd? Are you trying to win them over or catch heat?

they didn’t say, im just going out and trying to work em

so? what are you going to tell them?

spoilers! If you really want to know you gotta tune in like everybody else

okay well as your friend, not a mark, do you want to tell me what happened?

¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

|=|

Becky laid her phone down on the table and sat back. She was shocked at the brush off she’d gotten, though it certainly added to this upside down day she was living. Becky couldn’t recall ever being brushed off like that by Bayley, or even seeing her brush someone else off in such a manner. Above all else, Bayley was kind. That hugger character was driven by the deep well of love that resided in the woman, exaggerated as some of it was it, it was rooted in Bayley’s reality. To reach out to the woman and not be embraced by her warmth left Becky feeling a cold she was unfamiliar with. She was broken from her daze when Alexa started snapping her fingers in front of her face to get her attention.

“You’re still ‘ere?” The Irish woman drawled, “I don’t have anything to tell you.”

“Obviously nothing useful. I want to know how they’re gonna handle it at the panel today. I mean Bayley isn’t here, and the next person anybody’s gonna ask is Sasha—who’s also not here! You and Charlotte are the next two people would think to ask about with your little discount Kliq. But Stephanie is here too so maybe they’ll just ask the people in charge what the deal is. I think I might start a betting pool, I’m sure there will be some interest—“

“We’re done here Alexa. I don’t have anything to tell you and quite frankly your company is not any I seek to keep. So why don’t you piss off and leave me to my work, huh? I have stuff to do before the panel and I had a rough night at the house show.”

“Well then,” Alexa scoffed, “I’ll just leave you to it I suppose. But when that belt goes up for grabs, I’m making my solo push again. Give you some competition Miss Face of the Company. Warn your little horsey pals that I can still run a brand, no matter how nicely I’ve been playing these past few months.”

With that Alexa stalked off and left Becky to stew in her thoughts.

|=|

Becky grabbed Charlotte by the arm as they walked off stage after their panel. When Charlotte had finally had a moment to text Becky back they had decided it would be easiest to chat in person after their media obligations. Becky steered them to an empty conference room.

“Have you heard from Bayley or Sasha about whatever the fuck that was last night?”

“Slow your roll Bex, take a breath. I texted Bayley when I heard about what happened and she said this whole thing is overblown, said she’s gonna explain everything tomorrow night at the show.”

“And that doesn’t strike you as weird? That doesn’t bother you at all? Because I thought Bayley was one of our close friends and I got the same non-answer. I don’t know what the fight was about, I don’t know who started it, I don’t know why the hell she was hanging out with Dean Ambrose of all people. And I specifically asked about all of that, in writing. And I’ve been thinking about it since this morning and I guess I don’t know the last time I really talked to her and that worries me. I’m concerned. I’m concerned that-that I missed something while I’ve been so busy, that she might have needed someone and I wasn’t there. But you were on Smackdown with her and I thought she might actually tell you something.”

Charlotte leaned back against the table, crossed her arms, and looked down at the floor, “We didn’t… chat that much on Smackdown. We’d meet to coordinate on matches and stuff but the story had her focussed on other people and things were getting more serious between Matt and I and we just didn’t really hang out.”

When Bayley’s move to Smackdown was announced, Charlotte had been excited. Not only would there be someone at her level on the show full time, but it was one of her best friends in the industry. Charlotte had been happy for the opportunity to rekindle the friendship and to be there for her friend while Sasha was gone and she settled in to a new brand, but it just never really happened.

“We were finally getting some heat in our feud when Sasha returned. They were so happy to be back together that I wasn’t really worried about Bayley and I figured we would all get together at some point and hang out. I guess with the wild card rule I wasn’t all that worried that the distance between the four of us would last. We were at damn near every event together I thought it would happen naturally.

“Not getting a real answer from her bothers me, but I can’t be all that surprised by it. It’s been a minute since NXT… things aren’t really like they were.”

|=|

And that was the crux of the matter, wasn’t it? That things weren’t like they had been at NXT. The Four Horsewomen were special not only to the fans and the world at large, but to each other. They had complemented and completed each other in ways none of them had predicted, and their bond had been something Becky expected to have and hold onto for the rest of her life. But things changed with their call up to the main roster. They’d left Bayley behind, first and foremost, no matter that it was not their call to make. And then management and the higher ups had visions for the revolution, visions that they had no hand in and could not change. They’d gone from being partners and equals in their rise and competition to opponents.

It’s the nature of professional wrestling that you would be in competition with your coworkers, battling to be the contender, the champ, the headliner. But Becky had been dismissed as second tier and Sasha was used to build others up while Charlotte was crowned a queen. It had made things hard for Becky, getting told repeatedly to wait and that her time will come. She had waited a long time and could tell they didn’t see greatness in her. It had been hard on Sasha, to summit a mountain time and time again to be kicked off it, even for someone she loves—loved? And with busier, more chaotic schedules and media obligations their bond had begun to change, the love and affection still present but strained.

When Bayley had finally been called up things improved only briefly before the scope of the main roster worked its way between them again. Business is business but it wasn’t any easier for Bayley to be buried than it was for Becky or Sasha, even if they were struggling in different ways. They had all begun to pull back, to keep their problems and troubles to themselves instead of sharing as they had before. When the four of them were split, with Sasha and Bayley on Raw and Becky and Charlotte on Smackdown, there had been healing between the pairs. Becky and Charlotte had been able to restore affection to their relationship, there was a renewed familiarity and comfort in their interactions that had flourished in the long car rides and extended one on one time.

Sasha and Bayley had never lacked for affection in their relationship, but in their own one on one time they had managed to build a stability that neither woman had felt in some time. They weren’t just working side by side but actively working in tandem, pushing behind the scenes for women’s tag titles and onscreen working to cultivate a story together, even when it felt like they were being written in nonsensical circles.

And then Ronda Rousey had shown up with her little posse and a lot of stuff seemed to happen at once. Becky and Charlotte began feuding on Smackdown and weren’t allowed to travel together anymore, Stephanie McMahon personally got behind the tag team push, and Becky caught fire with the fans. And suddenly the four horsewomen were all involved in the same storyline when Sasha threw the four in Ronda Rousey’s face and built a feud out of nothing.

Their group chat saw more activity than it had seen in months, the four talked as much as they had in NXT. They met up early in the morning to train together and shared match ideas at breakfast whenever they could. And on nights when they stayed in the same city they would meet in one hotel room to catch up and “study film,” before someone would demand a break from wrestling “for one God damn night” and pick a movie that the four would settle in to watch, piled on top of each other on hotel furniture that was not meant for four grown adults, let alone pro athletes built like titans. On more than a handful of nights the women fell asleep like that, accepting the discomfort of their arrangement and inevitable aches that would come in the morning because they didn’t want to disturb the peace of the night spent together; no one wanted to be the one to break up the cuddle puddle just to go to sleep alone in their own beds—heaven forbid they simply say such a thing and just migrate their pile of limbs and abs to a single bed in the room they were already assembled in. It felt like their bond was healing, thawing more the longer they were all together.

And then Nia broke Becky’s nose (and Bayley had had to physically remove Sasha from the locker room before either one of them gave her a receipt while Charlotte had all but carried Becky to the medic station) and the company finally realized what they might have in Becky. Her bloodied smirk was her star making turn and she wasn’t wasting a moment in capitulating; she was going to show that she was more than a paper champion, that she had the potential to carry the company not just a belt. And somehow simultaneously those opportunities to hang out became fewer and further apart.

When they announced the tag team titles it felt like Sasha and Bayley were finally going to be given the opportunity to fight and build their division like they wanted to do—the suffering and toiling in the undercard would be worth it, even jobbing to Ronda and legitimizing her as a dominant monster could be tolerated. Finally there were other belts to pursue, other stories to tell than trying to rehash the same feuds with the same faces at the top of the card. Becky could not recall the last time she had seen such genuine, overflowing joy in Sasha and Bayley’s eyes as she had at Elimination Chamber when they walked back through gorilla carrying their new hardware.

And while Sasha and Bayley were finally seeing some reward for their labor and consistency, Becky could see the summit of her own mountain in the distance. She and Charlotte were told of the plan for Wrestlemania, the payoff of all their labor, the blood, sweat, and tears they had poured into this winding three way feud. Not only would they be in the biggest women’s event in company history, there was even talk that they could main event.

If Becky tried to guess when their friendship had begun to fracture again, she could definitively say that it had been before the Mania announcements and after the Royal Rumble. Maybe it had started to fail around Fastlane, they hadn’t met up to train together in some time, as she, Charlotte, and Ronda were the focus of the feud and the narrative shifted from the Four Horsewomen gang war to the blood feud amongst the three of them; she couldn’t remember talking to Sasha and Bayley as much in the days leading up to the pay-per-view, and she was absolutely positive that she had not known anything about the plans for the tag team titles heading into Wrestlemania—so that had to be when the cracks had begun to show, when Mania plans were being laid… Even with such a window Becky still didn’t know why things changed again.

And then she and Charlotte main evented Wrestlemania, and she was Becky2Belts and the face of the company, and Sasha took a hiatus and she didn’t even know why. And when she texted Sasha she got text back from Sasha’s husband of all people explaining that she had needed some time away from the company, a proper vacation to get her head on straight and that Sasha would reach out when she was feeling better.

And when she texted Bayley about it the hugger had said it was a long time coming and that there was too much to explain over text or in catering. And Becky knew, she knew, that they had made plans for a night in together to hang out and properly catch up. She knew that she had suggested the night in and that Bayley had responded positively to the idea and yet such a night did not happen in the days or weeks following Mania. And then Becky became so busy with new responsibilities and opportunities and… Seth, that she let some other things suffer. Such that even while pulling double duty as champ and appearing regularly on both shows, Becky was seeing as little of Bayley as when they’d been on separate brands entirely.

That pattern continued, somehow, through Bayley winning the Smackdown title and the institution of the wild card rule that required wrestlers be present at both brands’ shows. The three remaining Horsewomen were in the same city more nights than not, and yet the distance between them was as great as it had ever been, and looking back Becky was ashamed that she had not noticed or perhaps noticed and not been overly concerned for what it all might mean.

|=|

“When Sasha came back, and we were feuding and you and Bayley were feuding at the same time, that was amazing. Tagging against them was maybe more fun than I had at Wrestlemania. I don’t understand what happened after… I thought we were good I don’t know why she’s stonewalling like this.”

“I mean maybe she can’t say what’s going on. If there are cops involved, because a bar fight definitely counts as an assault case, she might not have answers yet and she might be stalling for time.”

“But why not tell us that? We’re her friends not marks, she can trust us! And I asked questions that weren’t even about the fight, like since when is she hanging out with Renee? And why was she out with Dean? I could pull names out of a hat and come up with friendships that make more sense to me than that one.”

“I’m with you all the way Becky, same page, I promise. But let’s pull back for just a minute to breath. If she’s not giving us answers, we can assume there’s good reason. We’re not making any headway texting or calling her—“

“Can’t when she’s not fecking answering—“

“Not the point. We’re not getting answers from her today, she said she gets to address it tomorrow though. If Bayley is under some sort of corporate gag order I think it’s safe to assume she’ll be more able to talk after Smackdown. I think our best option is to tell her now that we’re here if she wants to talk and that we have her back. Then we just have to wait for the show tomorrow night to see her explanation. We’re all scheduled for the super house show Saturday anyway so we can catch up in person and get the rest of our answers then.”

Charlotte knew as she proposed this plan that Becky would not be satisfied, and in truth neither was she. Even while she worked to sooth Becky’s anxieties she was concerned about such a drastic change in the hugger’s behavior. She had lived her first gimmick so well, was she diving into this new one with the same vigor?

|=|

Becky threw herself down into the seat next to Charlotte, “Alright so I tried to talk to one of the flight attendants about streaming anything to the built in screens and he basically said no and that our best bet is just join the wifi and stream to our own phones or laptops but then Gallows overheard me and said AJ is going to use his fancy video game suitcase set up to watch on a proper TV screen if we wanted to join the group. Apparently we’re not the only ones curious to hear Bayley’s explanation. Oh and Alexa overheard Stephanie this morning before she left that Bayley is addressing the crowd to open the show so we don’t have to wait.”

It had been another busy day for the wrestlers on media duty, and it had been a little weird when Stephanie left early to fly to Smackdown. She had assured the group that her team was remaining with them and would keep things running smoothly, and also that they were still screening questions about Bayley and Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley. “And if someone manages to ask, just say you’re gonna be watching Smackdown to find out. Alexa if someone presses you about being a Smackdown member play up that you’ve been rehabbing and are out of the loop.”

“Think I’m gonna find that flight attendant and see about getting a drink before this starts.”

|=|

Bayley stood in the middle of the ring. She was dressed in street clothes: a sleeveless shirt, jeans, vans, and a snapback to boot, her belt was slung over her shoulder. By all accounts she looked like she did every day, she wasn’t dressed to wrestle and her makeup was not done in her new heel persona. She was the Bayley they got lunch with, worked out with, traveled with. She wasn’t dressed as the Hugger or the Role Model and it all lent an air of legitimacy to whatever was to come. The wrestlers watching on the plane debated quickly before she started speaking, with the consensus being that so far this felt like a genuine address to the fans and not a work.

And then Bayley began to smirk as she spoke into her mic, “So I’m sure you can all guess why I’m here right now.”

She paused as the crowd began to drown her out chanting, “Mox! Mox! Mox!”

“But if you want your answers you’re going to need to settle down!” The chants crescendoed and quieted.

“There we go, that’s what I like to hear! Now, as I was saying, I’m sure you know why I’m here but if you don’t, here’s the short of it. I was in a bar fight, it went viral. Now here I am, addressing all of you because apparently I owe you that.” She waited out the faint rumbling of boos.

“I’ll be honest, I did not expect this to happen. I didn’t expect to be in a bar fight on a Wednesday night, I didn’t expect for it to be filmed and posted anywhere, I really didn’t expect anyone to recognize me and to wake up yesterday morning to my name trending on Twitter and roughly a million missed calls and texts from everyone I know. But all that happened and about half of those calls were bosses and producers demanding an explanation and telling me it better be good. And now here I am, in front of all of you, about to offer that explanation and an apology and to make it clear that I am still your Smackdown Women’s Champion but also your role model.

“To assist in this I brought a visual aid,” the gigantron above the wrestlers’ ramp lit up with video from the bar, but instead of it being a jumpy, portrait mode video from someone’s cell phone it looked to be from a security camera shooting from behind the bar with a clear shot at Bayley and Ambrose front and center.

“I have had a very busy day involving security firms, bartenders and more lawyers than I ever wanted to talk to in my life and it was all to bring this film of the incident to you, the people of the WWE Universe—be grateful! You can see me there, in the snapback at the corner of the bar, next to me is my friend—“ At this point the crowd started to rumble, “—you may recognize him—“ the crowd noise climbed rapidly, “—if you follow Renee Young on instagram.” Bayley was nearly drowned out by the crowd at this point and began nearly shouting into the mic, “This is Renee’s husband, Jon, he took her name when they got married, that’s Jon Young.” The crowd finally erupted into boos as Bayley let the mic down and started laughing to herself.

|=|

“I heard that right, right?” AJ Styles drawled. “She just mentioned Jon by his name right?”

“Holy shit.” Luke Gallows said, “Holy shit.”

“I think she’s working them, the crowd I mean. C’mon Jon Young is a funny as fuck line, she had to mention in some capacity who she was with, look at that heat!” Karl Anderson was as shocked as he was impressed.

Alexa laughed as she offered her two cents, “So she’s either dropping the belt or she’s fired then, right? Even calling him Renee’s husband there’s no way they approved that she name drop someone from another company!”

“That’s what I’m saying though—she didn’t namedrop him! She didn’t even say Dean Ambrose! She might be in trouble but she didn’t say AEW and she didn’t say Jon Moxley. I’m not saying she had permission to do it but that shit got a reaction and was ballsy as hell!”

“Semantics! She’s trying to thread that needle with an assault charge hanging over her head? She’s out the door and she knows it she’s gone off the reservation, I’m—“

“Everyone shut up Bayley’s talking again!”

|=|

“If you keep booing you don’t get to hear the rest of the story! Thank you, that’s what I thought. As I was saying before you all so rudely interrupted, you can see my friend Jon and I at the bar. We had gone to a concert together and decided to get drinks afterwards so we could chat and catch up, maybe play some darts or pool, I dunno we didn’t get the chance.

“We’re sat at the bar and this woman keeps making passes at him, real aggressive too. Normally I’m the one that has to worry about people trying to get too familiar but it was apparently his turn. Now Jon is a good man and a good husband so he tells the lady he’s not interested,” the titantron showed short interactions between Jon and the same woman, “Probably the third time she tries to make a move I started laughing, at him because he’s uncomfortable and at her because she’s persistent and her come ons were getting graphic but later on I started getting angry because she just won’t leave us alone.”

The video speeds threw, showing interactions between a woman and Jon and then interactions with Bayley leaning in.

“Now I’m a good friend to Jon and to Renee, so when this lady wouldn’t quit, I let her know that he’s married, which he had already tried to tell her. And then I told her that as much as everyone would like to see his wife back on the market there’s no way he’s ever straying and that her time is better spent trying it with someone else. She did not appreciate my interference, even when I began to tell her how awesome Renee is!”

The crowd popped for Renee.

“Anyway, I tell her to get lost one more time and I thought she finally got the message.” The video plays to show the woman leave the bar and circle back around to swing at Bayley from behind. At this point the fight is on as the wrestlers on the plane see the full fight for the first time as the camera angle switches to a shot from behind the group. After the initial punch the woman pulls Bayley off her barstool to the ground, Bayley pulls her arms up around her head in guard until she traps one of the other woman’s arms and reverses into the mounted position seen in the viral video. The footage continues to roll through the rest of the fight as Bayley throws a couple punches, leaves mount, and hits the elbow. After the elbow drop, the video pauses again.  
“So I was sent out here to apologize, but I don’t really think I did anything wrong that night. My friend was being harassed, I defended him. I was attacked, I defended myself and I did not just beat someone up for the sake of beating them up, I fought to win and when I established that I was the winner the fight was over. Real role model behavior if you ask me! However, there was a moment of foolish pride and arrogance that I do want to apologize for.”

The video played again and showed Bayley jumping to her feet after the elbow, throwing her head back and her arms out wide as she appeared to crow at the ceiling. The arena began to woo as they recognized what Bayley had done.

“That’s right Atlanta, I wooed like a Flair in the middle of a fight. That’s not sporting! That’s not polite!” Bayley was grinning from ear to ear as she scolded the crowd. “Celebrating in the middle of a fight is a great way to ask for more trouble! But that’s why you always travel with a buddy! So they can have your back and keep you from being your own worst enemy.”

The video rolled again as Bayley began to move back to mount before Jon grabbed her by the arm and they both moved quickly to the exit.

“So there you have it folks, my explanation. I’m sorry for showboating like I did, I know better, and I will work to be better in the future. Enjoy the rest of the show!”

|=|

“Is that it? She’s still champ? She got 20 minutes uninterrupted to apologize for showboating?!” Charlotte could not recall a time when Alexa had been so red in the face, except maybe when Sasha had suggested that Larry Steve would make an incredible roast.

“Hold on hold on, Graves is saying something…”

“… in a bar why would she be afraid to fight someone here? Bayley is still champion until someone takes that belt away from her.”

“There you go, if she’s dropping the belt it’s in a fight. They wouldn’t send her out to address anything if she was suspended and I don’t think they let her give a whole fucking presentation if she was fired.” Game respect game and Zelina was impressed by what she had just seen. “Frankly I think this just extended her run, very least it made it hard to just throw her in catering, people know who she is and she makes a good case to not be the bad guy—even while coming off like a major douchebag.”

“I think I have more questions now than I did before…”

“Nikki just texted me from catering!” Alexa held her phone above her head as she drew the attention of the plane. “She says earlier this afternoon Lacey was told to prepare for a match with Bayley, win or lose was TBD.”

“Have they been announced to wrestle?”

“Not yet,” AJ chimed in “and it sounds like that’s what Graves and Cole are arguing about, Cole was waxing poetic about the prestige and honor of stepping in a WWE ring and Cole started yelling at him about how wrestling is fighting and a champ should win everywhere. I think they’re teasing a title defense for later in the night.”

“I mean that’s one way to get ratings up.”

|=|

Becky and Charlotte sat quietly in the back row of the plane contemplating the fight they had just witnessed and the promo that preceded it.

Michael Cole had announced that as a penalty Bayley was to defend her title to anyone who wanted to challenge, every week until the next pay per view and Lacey was her first challenger.

The fight had been 50/50 for longer than anyone expected before Lacey set Bayley up in the corner and went to hit her springboard moonsault. But as she jumped to the top rope and turned her back, Bayley got her knees up. Lacey hit the moonsault hard, staggered away and fell to her knees while Bayley rolled to her feet. The men and women on the plane had watched Bayley stalk Lacey as she got her bearings. When Lacey finally stood upright they watched Bayley dart in to grab the Southern Belle, but they were shocked that instead of her hugging Lacey and jumping into the Bayley-to-Belly she hooked both of Lacey’s arms and tucked her head into a front-facelock—a double arm DDT. Once she locked in the hold, Bayley had looked straight to the hard cam, winked, and then hit the finisher. She hit the cover, 1-2-3, grabbed her belt and rolled out of the ring to the announcer’s table where she had grabbed a mic and informed the crowd, “I won on Wednesday night, I won tonight. I was champ yesterday, I’m champ today, and I’m gonna be your champ forever Smackdown so get used to it!”

“So. If Bayley still has a job tomorrow we’re not gonna have any shortage of things to talk about, are we?”


	2. What You Don't Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clear up a couple of things, the endgame for this story is Bayley/Becky/Charlotte/Sasha in a poly relationship. When I mentioned the other relationships like engagements or marriages in the notes last chapter those are relationships they start in but they will not last. This will include infidelity and other scenarios, if that makes you uncomfortable this story is not for you. I admitted that this story is unholy and I shouldn't be writing it but that has not stopped me. 
> 
> This new chapter is a lot more filler with some hints at the substance than I wanted it to be but I wanted to update and at least it's something.

“Change of plans ladies, Boss’n’Hug are out, Fire and Desire are going to be the fourth team in the tag match.” Triple H raised his hand to stop various exclamations from the women before continuing, “Carmella you’re going one on one with Sasha; she’ll be here soon, her flight out of Boston was delayed.”

As soon as H finished his sentence Becky and Charlotte were ready to jump down his throat, but Alexa Bliss beat them to it.

“What the hell? Why? Do Sonya and Mandy even know the spots that Sasha and Bayley were supposed to hit? We’ve had this routine down and we’re supposed to rework it the day of the event? This is totally unprofessional—“

“Bayley’s presence was required in Florida,” interrupted Triple H. “I can assure you that both Bayley and Sasha were en route this morning. There’s a blizzard on the east coast that delayed Sasha and Bayley landed here early this morning when she was told to get to Florida. Neither of them is to blame for the change in plans. As far as changes in the match, you are professionals, it’s part of the job to adapt and call this shit on the fly. Step up! I thought some of you might be happy at the opportunity to flex a little creative control here? No? Those complaints about restrictions and limits are all bullshit then? Is that it?”

H paused to stare down the room, “No? Then let’s not be difficult for the sake of being difficult, huh? The ring is up and you have plenty of time to work through your match. The men have been informed that the ladies have first dibs tonight for any walkthroughs, Mandy and Sonya are professionals just the same as you and are ready to work through this. Sasha will be here too if she needs to help explain her and Bayley’s parts of the match. I don’t want to hear any excuses after either, I expect a quality show tonight.”

With that, Triple H departed and the women were left to talk and prepare for the night ahead of them.

“So,” Nia Jax spoke up from the back of the room. “The champ has to go to headquarters the same week she gets in a bar fight and the day after she cuts the wildest promo of her career… I think we can all guess what that means!”

She paused to look around the room, happy to have all eyes on her and thrilled to see that both Becky and Charlotte had grown visibly tense. “The champ has moved from hugs to drugs! Oh how the mighty have fallen. Test results must have come in and she’s getting the dressing down in person before the exit interview. Tsk tsk.”

Charlotte was on her feet and across the room before Nia had even finished speaking, and the only thing thing that kept her from getting right in the Samoan’s face was Natalya grabbing her around the waist and physically stopping her.

“You wanna talk shit Nia? Huh? You got a lot to say about people who aren’t in this room, real brave of you. Well why don’t you try it again, huh? You still feeling bold?” Carmella had joined Natalya in restraining Charlotte and both women were speaking rapidly at her, working to calm her down.

As Charlotte strained against the women holding her, Becky calmly made her way over and placed a hand on the Queen’s shoulder. The taller woman slowly began to calm, breathing heavily through her nose. She finally stopped her straining after a moment, though her face remained flushed a deep red, a look usually reserved for longer matches and intense workouts.

Becky finally spoke, peering around the wall of blonde women to look Nia in the eye, “You do run yer mouth an awful lot, don’t yah? Better be careful no one comes calling with a receipt for you, starting nasty rumors like that.”

If Becky or Charlotte expected Nia to back down in the face of their united front, or to be cowed by their calling her out, they were sorely mistaken. Nia would not be intimidated and she would not back down; especially when she was convinced that she was in fact correct.

“Don’t be upset with me for speaking the truth. It’s basic math, girls. It’s unbelievable that she was even allowed to show her face on Smackdown last night but hey—maybe they didn't drug test her after the bar fight, maybe they let her put that down to a night of drinking. But that batshit address she gave the crowd? I mean, we all saw how her eyes looked—she was wild and out of pocket. If she didn’t pee in a cup after that little show I will personally pay for her to fly first class to every event for the next month.”

“Better buy two tickets because we’re a package deal.”

Every head in the room turned to the door where Sasha Banks casually leaned in, her hands holding onto the frame above her head.

“Bay _is_ in Florida, and she even peed in a cup, but the two are unrelated. She volunteered for a drug screening the morning after the fight. Came up clean. She got called in by the brass for business, and that’s none of _your_ business. But keep shit talking, see how it works out for you. Becky isn’t the only one in this company to owe you a receipt or two and Bayley and I might just feel like calling one in.”

Sasha stepped fully into the room and nodded to Becky and Charlotte, “You planning to do something or can we get to the ring and make sure your night goes smoothly? Mella, you come too so we can talk about our match.”

With that the Boss turned on her heel and left. Natalya and Carmella slowly eased the holds they had on Charlotte as she had stopped fighting and was now staring Nia down.

“This isn’t high school and you’re not friends with the principal. If you want to gossip and start rumors that can do actual damage to people’s careers, you better be prepared to face consequences.”

As Charlotte and Becky walked away to lead the tag teams to the ring Nia spoke up one more time.

“We can argue some other time about whose dick is bigger but I’m not just talking outta my ass about your little Role Model. She’s been getting wild for a while now, not my fault if y’all don’t want to see it.”

|=|

Charlotte and Becky leaned against the barricade as they waited for Sasha and Carmella to finish up. With Sasha’s help it had been easy to catch Sonya and Mandy up to speed on the plot of the tag match. They had changed a couple spots and stunts to better suit the newly added women’s styles but everyone was comfortable and confident ahead of the show. When they had finished Charlotte and Becky silently agreed to wait for Sasha ringside to guarantee an opportunity to talk to her about Bayley.

“What do you think Nia was talkin’ about?” Becky slowly asked. “About Bayley being wild and off her leash?”

Charlotte sighed and shrugged, “I think she was trying to cover for her talking shit. We’ve known Bayley a long time, and you know as well as I do that she’ll let loose once in awhile and people think she’s going crazy. Maybe Bayley had a night out and Nia thinks that’s her new normal. Or _maybe_ she’s just trying to start shit like always. If we start fighting her then she can work it to a title shot and TV time. Don’t give her what she wants, don’t let her work you.”

“I won’t it just-it’s just kind of hard to get what she said out of my head. Were you looking at her when she said it? Because the look on her face wasn’t that shit-stirring one it was calculated bitch.”

“I’m not sure there’s a lot of difference when it comes to Nia, Bex. Forget about her, the most trustworthy source about Bayley is Sasha—and hell, Carmella is a close second. No reason to let Nia get to you when we can talk to them—“ Charlotte stopped as Sonya sidled up next to her and joined the Horsewomen on the barricade.

“What are you guys still doing here?” She asked, “Thought they’d have you two doing some promotional shit around town.”

“Got the day off after the busy week of it. They need us fresh for tonight anyway.”

“Did I interrupt something? You two were looking pretty intense, you planning a hit on someone? Let me know who I should say goodbye to,” laughed Sonya.

Becky shot Charlotte a questioning look. When the blonde shrugged, Becky turned to Sonya and replied, “Actually we were talking about Nia and what she said about Bayley.”

“Ah,” Sonya nodded. “She’s always got something to say. Maybe if she hopped off that high horse and was a little less judgmental she’d have a few more friends in the company. I thought she and Mella were gonna actually fight when we were filming Total Divas this summer.”

“Oh yeah? What happened?”

“You know what she does, she took some little details and shit and blew everything out of proportion. Made drama out of nothing. Like the producers feed us storylines sometimes or whatever but I’m pretty sure they just point Nia in a direction and let her work the rest of us. I was glad to see you guys get in her face right away, nobody wants reality TV in the locker room for real. ”

“I don’t know how she keeps getting away with saying stuff like that. If I had to be on your guys’ show with her I think I would fight her.”

The women paused to watch Sasha and Carmella for a minute, seeing Sasha demonstrate a transition she wanted to hit to get to the Bank Statement.

“She’s smart about what she says, y’know? She makes sure whatever she says has some basis in fact so she can brush it off as a ‘misunderstanding’ on her part.”

“And what about the shit she just said about Bayley? Being wild and doing drugs, that’s insane, I don’t know how that would be allowed to slide.”

Sonya grimaced a half grin, “You really don’t watch reality TV at all, do you? I mean good for you but that’s basically nothing. For one, Bayley got in a bar fight, that’s so wildly out of character for anyone watching that saying ‘oh she’s on drugs’ is a totally passable joke. Plus she did get drug tested so, like, someone higher up must have had a similar thought,”

“But Bayley offered to be tested, according to Sasha.”

“She offered but had to know one was coming anyway. It looks better to make the offer but still, they’re not happy that it’s even a question. And as far as the ‘Bayley’s gone wild’ thing, I mean it’s not really a lie lol. Publicly there was video of her dancing on a bar late last year, she just got in a bar fight with Dean fucking Ambrose as her back up… It’s not like it’s been one night of craziness for her. Not to mention stuff that isn’t public, like if she follows Liv’s finsta, I mean then she’d have more than enough material to talk mad shit about a few of us haha…” Sonya trailed off when she caught the looks Charlotte and Becky were giving her. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Becky took the lead, “First, what is a ‘finsta.’ Second, what is on it that makes Bayley or you wild?”

“You don’t know what a finsta is? It’s basically a secondary instagram account that you keep smaller and private and you post the stuff you wouldn’t on your real insta, a fake-insta, get it? People post stuff like funny or ugly pics. It’s also usually private because then you can say whatever you want because you only let people you trust follow it. Here I’ll show you.”

Sonya pulled out her phone and began to scroll through an instagram profile, “Liv posts a lot on hers so hold on a second, I need to find something that’s me or Bayley—oh! Here!”

Charlotte took the phone from Sonya and she and Becky watched a short compilation video of Sonya spearing Bayley and Liv Morgan, as they were jumping on a trampoline into a sponge pit.

“So why post this to her ‘finsta’?” Charlotte asked. “There’s nothing bad or private about it.”

“I mean we were pretty drunk and had rented the trampoline emporium privately. We didn’t want any stalkers showing up outside and it kind of protects kayfabe to not show like our friendship with Bayley. I know Sasha and her have been emphasizing kayfabe on social media lately so we’ve been respecting that. But yeah if Nia’s been following she’s seen some shit haha.”

“Bayley’s been hanging out with you guys?”

“Yeah? I mean when Sasha took her hiatus and Bayley moved to Smackdown we started hanging out more. Like Liv was so happy to be able to hang out and train with her again and Liv is one of my best friends so it just kind of happened. We’ve had a lot of fun actually, you guys should come out with us sometime! Looks like Sasha and Carmella are done, by the way.”

Charlotte and Becky turned to the ring to see the other women were climbing out.

“Too poor to buy a ticket or just wanted to see how a real wrestler does it?” Sasha smirked as she leaned on the apron. “Seriously what’s with the stalker act, you can just watch the show tonight.”

“The show was a treat but we were waiting to talk to you, actually.” Charlotte smirked back at Sasha, it was always a pleasure to spar with her verbally or physically. Watching Sasha swagger around the ring and talk her shit made the Flair miss the brief overlap when the Horsewomen had been feuding with each other, and miss being on the same roster as her. Charlotte loved wrestling maybe more than anything else in the world and wrestling Sasha was a particular highlight every time she got to do it. The blue haired woman brought out the competitive side in her like few others and made her want to elevate her work every chance she got.

“To what do I owe the honor, your highness?”

“We wanted to check on you and Bayley,” Becky started. “We haven’t caught up in awhile and with that video this week we just want to make sure you’re all good.”

Sasha’s face briefly twitched and puckered before settling in to a sad sort of smile, “We’re good but thanks for the check up.”

“Are you really okay? You can be honest if something’s going on, we’re your friends.”

“Bayley and I are good, better than ever really.”

“Really?” Becky asked skeptically, “Because I can count on one hand how many times I’ve ever seen Bayley that drunk, and she only drank like that around us. Drinking like that in some dive bar with Dean Ambrose doesn’t really seem like something she would do if everything was okay.”

There was a hard glint in Sasha’s eye as she responded, “Bayley’s always been friendly enough with Mox, they got close a few months ago when she visited Renee in Vegas. And she’s allowed to have a good time however she wants she’s a grown adult.”

Charlotte could smell an argument brewing and decided to try defuse it before it could take off.

“We don’t mean anything by it Sash, really we just got worried. I mean c’mon, Bayley actually assaulted somebody in a bar—that’s about as un-Bayley like as anything I can think of. I know she didn’t start it but like… I’ve watched that video a few dozen times now and the more I watch the more it looks like Bayley was excited to fight.”

“She’s a happy drunk and we fight for a living, why wouldn’t she be smiling through a bar fight.”

Becky stood up from the barricade and crossed her arms, “I dunno maybe because it was a bar fight? Maybe because that woman was looking to genuinely hurt her and that’s a little different from stepping in the ring with a coworker you trust? Frankly the fact that you’re so unconcerned is not helping at all. Do we need to be worried about you too? Is something going on?”

“It’s cute that you’re so concerned over nothing. Bayley can more than handle herself and if she was in real danger, she was out with a guy who likes playing with barbed wire.And before you get on your high horse about how concerned I am, I _was_ worried and then I spoke to Bayley. She reassured me and I trust her to know when she’s in over her head.”

“She was drunk as a skunk.”

“And yet she was coordinated enough to hit an elbow drop.”

“And so drunk to think that she should try one in a _bar fight_.”

Charlotte cut in once more, “Sasha! Becky! We’re not here to argue, we’re here because we are concerned. Sash, you can say we’re worrying about nothing but it kind of feels like we’re getting the cold shoulder from Bayley. If she spoke to you and whatever she said calmed you down, why can’t we talk to her?”

Sasha ran her tongue over her teeth, her face twitching once more, “I don’t know why Bayley isn’t talking to you. They’ve had her running all over the place since she went viral, I only got to really talk to her at Smackdown so maybe she’s just been busy. What has she actually said?”

“Very little. She told Becky to watch Smackdown when she asked her what happened and that’s pretty much been it.”

“I haven’t spoken to her much either, if it makes you feel better,” Carmella piped up from the barricade. She and Sonya had stepped back from the trio but not left for the locker room. “And she’s been quiet in all the group chats beyond basically what she told you. She kind of just said that it would all be easier to explain in person instead of text or over the phone. Especially because she was still expecting to be here tonight I think everyone just kind of got the brush off, not just you guys.”

“So you’re waiting on an explanation too?” Becky asked.

“At the very least I’m expecting her to give an unabridged and uncensored powerpoint presentation, accompanied by a very nice bottle of rosé. Or tequila. Whatever feels right. I want a play-by-play of that whole night.”

“Oooooh! I’m joining.” Sonya said. “We can make a night of it at my house this week and you can all see the house now that renovations are done!”

“If you two want to plan a party you can do it later. What’s the consensus on Bayley? And I really do want to emphasize that she’s never ignored us like this before. Is she okay?”

Charlotte and Becky watched as the other three women quickly glanced at each other, before any of them answered.

Sasha stepped up to take the lead, “Bayley is fine, text her again tomorrow or some time this week and I’m sure she’ll answer. Now come on, lets clear the ring. I think the guys in the six man tag match wanted to do their own walk through.”

As Sonya and Carmella led the women back to the locker room, Charlotte and Becky moved to either side of Sasha.

“We don’t mean to make it sound like we’re only checking on Bayley,” started Becky. “Feels like we haven’t talked to you in ages either. We ought to set a date for our own night in, like old times.”

“Maybe Carmella had the right idea,” Charlotte picked up where Becky had left off. “Been a while since we killed a bottle or two just the four of us. I’m sure we can all coordinate a cheat day and have a good time. Hell I’ll even buy since I know you two have shit taste and Bayley’s not picky.”

“That all sounds great, you thinking Chamber weekend? Wrestlemania?”

Charlotte shot Sasha a look, “Elimination Chamber is over a month away, let alone Mania. Why would we wait that long?”

Sasha rolled her eyes, “Our regular off days aren’t going to overlap and pay per views and these super house shows are basically the only time we’re all in the same place right now,that’s gonna be the easiest time to set something up.”

“So let’s pick a house show date, I want to hang out with you guys soon and pay per view weekends are hellacious anyway. No way we’d have the time to properly catch up and if we tried we’re either showing up to Chamber hungover or Becky and I will be hungover at Raw.”

Sasha smirked, “I mean… none of us are wrestling at Chamber except Bayley, and she just proved she can bounce back like no other. I still think that’s going to be the better opportunity to hang out.”

Becky nudged Sasha as they were walking, “You avoiding us?”

“No! It’s not like that. Look can we talk about this later? I’ll talk to Bayley this week when I see her and then we’ll text you guys. We still don’t know what’s going on for her in terms of her title program and any discipline she’s facing anyway so if she gets pulled from appearances or has to report to Florida or something that would make all our planning pointless.”

“You’re right, you’re right. Just promise that you’ll actually get back to us and that we will get together.”

“I _promise_.”

|=|

Becky stepped out of the bathroom, one hand running through her hair as she looked down at her phone. Bayley had texted sometime during the show that she would love to do a night out with the other women and that she agreed they needed to catch up properly. Initially Becky had been happy to see the text in the 4HW group chat and had excitedly sent back a string of emojis expressing that excitement. But the longer she looked at the texts the less she felt that initial joy and relief.

Bayley still had not texted her nor Charlotte individually, sticking only to the group dynamic. And while she and Charlotte were talking about a night in, Bayley was only referencing a night out. Before it had never been Bayley to insist on a night out, happier to do a quiet evening at one of their homes or a more intimate house party than going to a bar or a club. It was unusual, but given recent events and the passage of time maybe it was just a new normal and Becky was just out of the loop.

As she walked to her bed Seth looked up from the couch where he had been reading a new script and making notes.

“Hey are you alright?” He asked. “You’ve been kind of preoccupied since the show I thought everything went well?”

“The match was fine, Mandy and Sonya stepped up well. Triple H was even pretty pleased with the end result.”

“What’s got you down then? You’ve been frowning at your phone since we got here.”

There was a part of Becky that didn’t want to share with Seth, that felt that maybe her concerns were unfounded and there was no reason to plant any ideas in his head about Bayley. She didn’t want to needlessly gossip about her friend, especially if it turned out to be nothing. But there was also a smaller part of Becky that specifically felt that this was Horsewomen business. If she was concerned about another wrestler, like Natalya or Sami, she wouldn’t hesitate talk to Seth. It’s different with Bayley, as it would be different with Sasha or Charlotte. There was a different code for how they treated each other; it was more important, more sacred, than the relationships they had with other wrestlers and friends. To bring someone else into their business could feel like a violation and betrayal.

But Becky could talk about Bayley’s strange behavior without talking about Bayley, “I guess I’m just thinking about Smackdown and the whole bar fight thing. I’m nervous about why Bay got called to Florida. It’s just all so weird to me—did you even know she was friends like that with Ambrose? Have you heard anything from him about it?”

“Nah that was news to me too. I didn’t really see them interact all that much but it was always cordial. I did text him when I saw but he didn’t have a lot to say, not that he ever does. Said the fight was not a big deal and that he and Bayley had it handled. He did make sure to tell me that was hardly some newsworthy event, really wanted to emphasize that this kind of thing happens every day and no one cares.”

“That’s almost exactly what Bayley said.”

“Peas in a pod maybe? If they’re hanging out it makes sense they’d be on the same wavelength.”

“Yeah but you _know_ Dean, a bar fight might be normal for him but hanging out with Bayley? That isn’t weird to you?”

“I _knew_ Dean. Time changes things and we grew apart after the breakup. We talked about brotherhood a lot but the truth is that even during the final Shield run we just weren’t that close. He was one foot out the door and I couldn’t reach him. So yeah I knew Ambrose but that doesn’t mean I know Moxley, y’know? It’s just the way things are sometimes.”

Becky shook her head, “But I know Bayley and I can’t fucking figure out what the hell is going on. None of this makes any sense to me.”

“Bex, we both know Bayley and maybe you _knew_ her better than most but maybe you don’t now.”

Becky was bordering on glaring at Seth now, “What exactly are you suggesting?”

“I’m not saying that you guys aren’t friends or are like enemies or anything I’m just saying maybe things have changed. Bayley got in a bar fight, right? And the Bayley I knew in NXT would never have done that. The Bayley we know would not be shrugging it off and acting like it’s nothing. But she did. Bayley is different now than she was then and that just might mean we have to get to know her again.”

Out loud Becky hummed a passive agreement that Seth might be right, but to herself she thought about how wrong it was that she should have to get know her friend again. She knew Bayley like she knew few people in the world. She knew her fears and her ambitions, her traumas and her triumphs. She had been there for the woman in her victories and defeats, celebrated with her in accomplishments and held her after nightmares, literally—and Bayley had done the same for her. To know someone as Becky knew Bayley and to look at that person one day and not recognize them anymore was unthinkable, a tragedy. And Becky would be damned if that was her reality.

|=|

Charlotte played back the video again, examining frame by frame as her Hugger engaged in legitimate and severe violence. She watched her friend, a woman who had built a career on smiling, hugging, and engaging with freaking children, mount and pummel a woman on a dirty bar room floor. And Bayley wasn’t just some sweetheart character on a screen for Charlotte, she knew Bayley to be the woman who changed the locker room culture from cutthroat competition to proactive support. Bayley was the woman who had insisted on nights spent relaxing in sweats and unwinding with a movie, she was the first one to offer someone a lift from the airport or a couch to crash on, she was the woman who had cried _with_ her when her brother died and insisted she not be alone, even coordinating with Sasha and Becky to spend nights with her. Bayley was the most good hearted person Charlotte knew and yet here she was watching her unleash on some poor woman. The disparity did not compute and only made Charlotte examine the video more closely.

She watched Bayley dominate the woman, pinning her beneath strong thighs while throwing stiff fists and forearms like it was her job. She watched her move to the stage to hit the elbow drop, at a speed at least twice what Bayley would ever hit in a ring. She watched again and again as the brunette threw out her arms and mimicked the Nature Boy with a smug grin to rival Charlotte herself. She paused the video for the final time as Dean started to pull Bayley from the bar. In the last moment of the fight, before turning to leave, Charlotte would swear that Bayley was staring down the woman with that smirk still on her face.

But that couldn’t be right, right? The footage wasn’t CCTV from the 90s but it also wasn’t HD—it had to be a trick of the tape. She had to be seeing things and overthinking, creating details that didn’t exist. Bayley might be getting drunk and getting in to fights but she certainly wasn’t enjoying it, right?

Charlotte knew Bayley to be passionate about the business, but wrestling isn’t actual violence. It’s choreography and stunt work, a very specific and specialized dance routine—if someone was seeking actual violence they could seek it out in other sports like MMA, as Brock and Sonya had in previous pursuits. The men and women in the WWE worked very hard specifically to not injure one another, and Bayley was among the safest workers Charlotte had ever stepped in the ring with. Bayley took pride in executing a match to the effective _illusion_ of violence, but she was certainly not a sadist that would pleasure in actually hurting another person… Right?

Charlotte sat back and sipped at her wine. She had tried to fall asleep as soon as she got back to her hotel but had struggled to settle in. After a half hour of tossing and turning she’d given up and pulled out the room service menu and her laptop. She’d indulged in an episode of Friends and a glass of wine before moving on to examine the bar fight but now she’d emptied the bottle and thoroughly dissected the video and somehow she only felt more restless.

She wanted to text Becky, to invite her over to crawl in to bed next to her and look at her notes on the video so someone else who knew Bayley could join her in her consternation, or maybe offer a reason or rationale. She wanted to call Sasha and just have a straight forward, no frills conversation addressing Charlotte’s very real concerns and confusion. She wanted to call Bayley and just get an honest and satisfactory answer out of the little brawler.

But Becky would be asleep with Seth, and even if she thought they would answer, Sasha and Bayley would still be on their respective flights. And there was zero chance that she would be talking to anyone else about this, at least not now and not at this time of night. She could call them tomorrow, or talk to Becky at Raw; if worst truly came to worse then she would talk to someone she trusted outside of the girls but for now she thought it better to let it go and try to get to sleep before traveling.

Charlotte finally put her laptop away and settled into bed. She fell asleep to thoughts elbows and missed calls.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't have any sort of schedule for this but the next chapter might take a minute because I'm more interested in chapter 4 than I am chapter 3 atm. If anything 3 will come quickly as a short filler, maybe just the WWE Backstage episode with Bayley and Renee, we'll see what happens.


	3. WWE Backstage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bayley is on WWE Backstage with Renee Young, Paige, Booker T, and CM Punk to answer some questions about her wild night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last section of the chapter is supposed to be a little mock version of a reddit discussion post about the show, sorry if you can't follow or hate it, it's not plot relevant. 
> 
> Tried a pretty different approach to this one, hope it works and that you enjoy it! Sorry it's kind of filler.

“Welcome back to WWE Backstage, always a pleasure to be here with Booker T, Paige and CM Punk but tonight we really have a treat for you! You see her every Friday night, she trended on Twitter over NXT last Wednesday, she is your Smackdown Women’s Champion—Bayley is here!” Renee paused as Punk took the time to cheer.

“That’s right folks, Bayley is here to further address her adventures last week but before we get to the champ we’re gonna break down the latest developments on Raw and Smackdown, stay tuned to see what the champ’s got to say!”

|=|

“Now, Renee, I don’t mean to cut you off just as we’re getting to the fun part of the night, but seeing as your husband was also in the bar fight, I can’t help but feel you have to answer some questions here too!” CM Punk looked absolutely gleeful as he began the lead in to Bayley’s interview. “So I was just thinking maybe you let me take the lead on this part of the night?”

Renee glanced off camera as a polite smile crossed her face, “I suppose that’s true enough… I don’t know that I have that much to contribute to this conversation but if that’s how you guys want to do this—take the wheel!”

“Thank you Renee, now lets welcome the Smackdown Women’s Champ to the stage, Bayley!”

Bayley’s theme began to play as the camera panned to the opening doors left of the stage. Bayley strolled in very casually, no strut or sullen walk, not even emulating her usual entrance, she just casually walked on set with a smile on her face.

The commentator group stood to greet her before they sat back down rearranged so that Renee sat on the outside with Bayley next to her, Punk in the middle followed by Paige and then Booker T.

“Before we start Bayley, I gotta tell you there was a little bit of a demand by other guests to be on tonight.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah I thought Ember and Paige were going to wrestle for the spot and Xavier Woods was ready to bribe someone.”

“Oh I love Woods but I’m sure he would have just spent the night roasting me!” Bayley laughed.

Punk laughed back, “That’s what it seemed like but luckily the schedule is the schedule and Woods wasn’t in LA today so we all are lucky enough to be here with you and _we_ get to be the ones to grill you about your little night on the town!”

“You’re not trying to recruit me to the Straight Edge Society, are you?”

“Not at all! Even though this would be the perfect opportunity methinks! But naw, naw, this is just about filling in some blanks and answering the questions we’ve all been dying to ask you! The things the people want to know!”

“No use stalling then, let’s do this!”

|=|

“So first thing’s first: why were you out with Dean Ambrose/Jon Young/Jon whatever you want to call him?”

“Well Jon and I are actually friends, Renee can back me up on that. We did both work for WWE for a fair stretch of overlap between FCW/NXT and then on the main roster. Obviously we weren’t involved in overlapping storylines but you have to work pretty hard to _not_ get to know your coworkers, y’know what I mean? Plus I’ve been good friends with Seth Rollins since NXT so I saw Jon with some frequency just by that association so it’s not like it was totally random that I was out with him that night.”

“Bayley and Jon actually reconnected when she swung by to visit me in Vegas!” Renee cut in, "I had some work to get done before she and I could go out and they took the opportunity to catch up. By the time I was done with work they were well in to some deep dive on hardcore wrestling.”

Bayley nodded in agreement, “I think we were watching some of Mick Foley’s greatest hits and trying to come up with some new spots and stunts for gimmick matches.”

“You’re interested in a gimmick match?” asked Booker.

“Oh always. I want variety and I want to try as many things as I can. I tried to get mine and Charlotte’s match at Hell in a Cell put in the cage but she wasn’t interested,” laughed Bayley. “Other than that I really haven’t been able to do many specialty matches. Y’know Sasha and I had the first women’s Iron Man match and that was so incredible but otherwise I think it’s just been Money in the Bank and a kendo stick match that I think we would all prefer to forget.

“Regardless of who I’m fighting or what my so-called ‘alignment’ is I always work with the goal of making a mark and putting out a good product. I want them to boo me because they were cheering for the other person and because I won effectively not because they’re bored. The only thing worse is silence. I’m not going to demand a gimmick match because it doesn’t always serve the story well and some people see them as a serious crutch but I definitely have some ideas and would love to have the opportunity to go out there and put my mark on something like War Games or No Holds Barred match.”

“I think we would all love to see that, myself included!” Renee exclaimed, but before she could continue Paige cut in.

“I’m sure you would tell quite a story in such a match but you’re not really here to apply for a producer role, are you? So if you don’t mind I have some questions myself about your little night on the town.”

Paige looked like a cat that ate the canary and then feasted on its hatchlings as a chaser. Bayley smiled back with a particularly steely look in her eye, and nodded at Paige as if to give her the go ahead.

“Now we actually go back quite a ways, don’t we Bay? Way back to NXT, you even challenged me for the women’s title back at Full Sail so I think I can speak with some authority when I say that this behavior is genuinely new and unusual for you! Even before this ‘Role Model’ bit you were touted as an example in some offices: committed relationship, strong work ethic, reasonable, mature, thoughtful, some might have called you the mom friend, I think I made a joke about you being the most middle aged twenty something I had ever met! All this to say, of all the people in the WWE that I might have guessed to get in to a bar fight in a dive like the one from the video…you would be close to dead last.”

Bayley smirked, “Was there a question in there that I missed?”

Paige smirked back, “What started the fight?”

“Like I said on Friday, she was flirting with Jon, I told her to back off, she didn’t take kindly to my scolding.”

“You did not provoke her?”

“No.”

“You weren’t riling her up to set her off?”

“No.”

“You were not looking for a way to start a fight with that woman?”

“ _No.”_

“You weren’t looking for a fight in general, itching for a dust up?”

“No, I was not looking for a fight. No, I did not invite her to swing on me. No, I did not insult her dead mother. I feel like I’ve been pretty thorough on this? If you’re working towards a question or a point feel free to get there sometime soon. Let’s be real, let’s be up front, huh?”

“Alright then,” Paige drawled. “You’re a champion for the women’s division in the biggest wrestling company in the world. That comes with certain expectations, specifically in how you represent that company to the world at large. Do you think you deserve to still be champion given what you did?”

“I deserve to be champ because I win my matches, my life outside the ring has nothing to do with that. Wrestling is my job what I do when I am off the clock is irrelevant.”

“You were drunk in a bar and you beat a woman.”

“I was not drunk and I defended myself against someone who attacked me,” Bayley corrected, her tone getting more intense as she spoke.

“You weren’t drunk?”

“ _Nope._ ”

“You look fairly shitfaced to me.”

“We must be watching different tapes because I looked fine and given what we know you’ve seen I would have to be a hot freakin’ mess to qualify as shitfaced.”

Renee tried to cut in to cool things down, “Guys c’mon take it easy—“

“I think we’re doing fine,” Bayley said, “Paige obviously has some things she wants to say and you know what? I’m happy to just be asked a straight question, cut the games and the bullshit. So please Paige, lay it on me, let’s hear what you want so badly to say.”

“Okay Bayley, since you asked so nicely, I think you’re champion for a reason but I don’t think it’s for any reason particularly exciting or compelling. You have long been, by your own description, a so-called ‘Role Model’. When you were giving hugs and smiling at kids and even when you started beating your friends with steel chairs you were known in the business to be consistent and stable. You could be counted on to hold a belt and support a division. You weren’t a braggart and you weren’t flashy but you were dependable. But this? Drunken disorderly? National news reports? Trending on twitter for a bar fight? You’re a liability. What are you worth if what made you valuable is gone?”

CM Punk’s eyes bugged out as he looked back and forth between Paige and Bayley, Renee was bent over her head in her hands, and Booker was just kind of frozen looking at the Britwhile Paige sat looking smug and satisfied as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs.

Bayley continued to stare down Paige as the silence seemed to drag on; the two women had not broken eye contact since Bayley had made her request for honesty. The Role Model gave a slow nod before she finally responded.

“It’s nice to know where we stand, to get your honest assessment, but let me correct you on a couple things. I am champion because I earned it, if you think I earned it by being ‘stable’ and ‘safe’, sure, go on and think that. But I earned this belt by showing up and showing out. I have worked harder than you will ever know or acknowledge and I have sacrificed for this. You have no right to my life outside of the ring and you don’t know anything about it because unlike you, Miss TMZ feature, I’m not a walking tabloid.

“You have a lot of nerve to call _me_ a liability and to suggest that I have changed when A) you hardly know me and B) you have a personal history like you do.

“You want to make this about who I am as a person? You want to say I’m a drunk and I’m out of pocket? You want to take this to a personal place? Let’s take it there. You love to bitch about the Horsewomen but you’re really just jealous and bitter. Don’t forget Paige, you were the chosen one from NXT to go to the main roster and they strapped you up on day freaking one. _You_ got to topple AJ Lee and stop her record setting title reign, _you_ were the ‘anti-diva’, the woman they picked to kick off the revolution and now you can’t even wrestle and that’s _sad_ Paige, I cried for you, I really did. I have rooted for every woman in this company to succeed and that includes you.

“I am _sorry_ that you can’t wrestle anymore, I’m sorry that the thing you love was taken from you but I will not sit here and listen to you attack me for this single night of-of revelry when you have sections on your wikipedia page dedicate to your drama.”

“I think you’re getting out of line here Bayley,” Paige snarled.

“I think I’m giving you a taste of your own medicine, actually,” Bayley shot back. “You love to talk about the Horsewomen, you love to rile the masses and get the tweets rolling but you don’t like when it’s your turn? You don’t want to see your name trending tonight?”

“I made some mistakes when I was younger but that’s not relevant this is about _you_ and your behavior.”

“I had a single night that made the news you were a regular feature.”

“There are standards and expectations for champions and you’re one of a handful of women holding a belt right now.”

“Well we all know what you like to do with belts don’t we?”

“All right I think that’s enough of that—“ Renee started trying to cut in as Bayley and Paige continued to jaw at one another.

“You’re lucky I can’t—“

“You keep my name out your fu—“

Paige was nearly to her feet having slid to the edge of her seat and Punk had thrown out an arm as a barrier trying to keep her in her seat while Ember was at her shoulder trying to talk her down.

Renee had a hand clamped firmly on Bayley’s shoulder. The wrestler had leaned forward but was still firmly seated, her muscles tensed looking every bit ready for a fight.

Booker T let out a shrill whistle that had the audio team scrambling but the women finally quieted.

“Y’all good? Do I need to jump in and play Papa Hunter are you gonna act like grown women?” Book asked. “Because I will whip both of you if I have to.”

Bayley leaned back in her seat and worked to assume a “chill” posture, arms lax on the armrests and her legs widened and relaxed into the “man-spreading” pose, “I’m cool, I’m cool. We good.” She coughed a bit to clear her throat.

Paige had stopped yelling but was taking longer to respond to his question. Her breathing was heavy and her fists were clenched, knuckles visibly white. Finally with Punk muttering to her and patting her on the shoulder she settled down, too.

Renee took the lead in trying to get the night back on track and signaled to production to cut to commercial, “Folks we’re gonna be right back after these messages!”

|=|

Renee was standing center stage with her hands clasped at her chest when the commercials ended. Punk, Paige, Booker T, and Bayley were all visible in the background in their seats.

“And we’re back!” Renee started, “We’re all good here folks, Bayley and Paige are cool, it’s important to remember that they both love this business and care about it and sometimes when people care as much as they do lines get blurry and things get intense. We just needed a minute to breathe and talk frankly without being broadcast which I’m sure you can all appreciate. We still have a bit of time before we’re done for the night so we’re gonna get back to our interview and then give you the rundown on what we should expect from this next week of wrestling including a big announcement for the NXT women’s division and who Bayley expects to answer her open challenge on Smackdown this Friday!”

With that Renee walked back and settled in to her seat and nodded to the other hosts to resume the interview.

Booker started off this time, “Renee this is more of a question for you really—,” he paused and resumed when she nodded her assent, “—what was your reaction to the video? I mean people picked out your husband pretty quickly. Did it make you uncomfortable?”

“I wouldn’t say I was uncomfortable at all—“

“Were you surprised to see them out together?” Booker pressed.

“No, not at all,” Renee was exasperated, “Like I said earlier, Jon and Bayley are friends just like Bayley and I are friends. I knew they were going to a show and in fact, Punk can vouch for me on this even, because they FaceTimed me after the show when they were on the way to the bar.”

Attention shifted to Punk who nodded in the affirmative, “We were here in the office with production working late and nailing down when I was scheduled next—because it wasn’t supposed to be so soon—when I think it was actually Bayley that called you up.”

“That’s right,” Renee picked up, “Bayley called while they were in their uber to try and goad me in to joining them at the bar to finish the night with them. Jon had had a Wednesday night off and Bayley was in town and I had told both of them that if possible I would join them for beers after work. Obviously didn’t work out because we ended up working late.”

“So you would have been at the bar with them?” Asked Paige, “Do you wish you had been or do you think it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

“I won’t say I wish I had been there because I don’t want to be involved in a bar fight and given that someone else started it I can’t say that my presence would have changed the sequence of events. If I _had_ been able to join them _maybe_ we would have gone to a different bar but really no, I don’t think anything changes.”

“What was your initial reaction to the video though?”

“The first thing I thought was, ‘that explains why they cut their night short and why the kitchen was destroyed when I got back,’ that they had cut their night out short and gone back to mine and Jon’s place and got into the margarita mix and the air fryer.”

“Okay then, your second thought?” laughed Paige.

“My second thought was ‘oh this is gonna suck for Bayley.’ Like this isn’t something people would probably call a surprise for Jon, you can find video of him jumping through glass and barbed wire this is gonna work well for him to add to that crazy edge. But for Bayley I was really thinking: Wellness is going to be on her ass now and she can expect to be in for a lot of paperwork and sit-down meetings.”

Punk chose to jump in at this point, “It’s interesting that you mention that because I think something could be said about different standards for the genders here! I worked in a different time and a lot of things have changed since I left but I will say that a guy getting in a dust-up like this would really quickly be worked into an angle. Without spoiling, Bayley how is creative looking at this?”

“Off the bat when I got to Florida and was meeting with the higher ups in person their immediate reaction, after I was interrogated and tested, was that I was going to issue an apology and statement on social media and we were going to ignore it on screen if possible. They really did not want to deal with it. I actually pushed for the opportunity to try and use it and Triple H backed me up and made them listen to my pitch.”

“Can you give us a taste of what you said that convinced them?” asked Booker.

“Mmmm, if you watch my monologue from Friday night I think that sums up the character pitch, if I talk too much more I’ll give away some of the plot I’m pushing for I think.”

“Was it hard talking them into it?”

“They were not interested at all in the first half hour of talking. Like they were nodding and letting me make my points but they were shrugging me off no problem. Hunter rolls in and they say let’s take a break so he can catch up, I make a really fast pitch to him in like five minutes after they were briefing him but before they got back to ‘brainstorming’. I just word vomit at him everything I’ve been telling them and pleading with him to back me up on this one, just begging him to back my play and let me do this.

“And he was skeptical and already concerned because he’s this kind of father figure to a lot of us that went through NXT and he wants to do this 'concerned papa-bear’ bit and make sure that I’ve not gone off the deep end and on some bender, y’know? But I reassured him and promised that he can grill me all he wants, I think I even promised to take him and Stephanie to dinner if he just backs me up and tells everyone that I can do this.”

“And he was convinced?”

“He pushed to let me at least try it for a crowd, we agreed that if I couldn’t hack it on Smackdown that they could cut it and push whatever narrative they wanted instead. Worst case scenario was that I would bomb so badly that I would lose that night and get benched.”

“Well I think we’re all grateful that didn’t happen!” Punk exclaimed. “‘cause I have to tell yah, that was one of the more interesting promos I’ve seen in awhile and I actually had to watch it back after your match.”

“Dude you have no idea how nervous I was getting ready and doing it. I was sweating so bad the whole time leading up to the show that I actually changed into that tank top because I kept sweating through my shirt.”

“Fair to say that the folks at home couldn’t tell, you were cool as a cucumber. Well done.”

“Thank you,” Bayley drawled.

Renee saw production cueing to her, “Looks like that will do it for our time with Bayley folks but before she leaves—Bayley, is there anything you want to leave the people at home with?”

Bayley leaned forward and addressed the camera directly, “I would leave them with this in regards to my behavior on and off the show last week: wrestling is at its greatest when it is driven by the story. Stone Cold and The Rock weren’t doing 450 splashes and back handsprings around the ring but they’re regarded as some of the greatest of all time because they got you invested and made you care, either that they won or that they got their ass kicked. I want to tell you a story, and I’m not just going to spoon feed it to you, I’m not going to sugar coat it so that you love it and it’s easy to swallow. If you don’t like something I’m doing it’s because you’re not supposed to like it. If you think I’m being callous or arrogant, it’s because I know I’m damn good and I’m not interested in denying it. I’m not interested in monologuing every week so that you can keep up with the plot, and I’m not going to post an instagram story breaking down every word and turn of phrase. I’ve stepped my game up since I became the Smackdown champion, all of you should get on my level.

“If you’re a smart little mark and you’re ‘worried about Bayley the performer’ I can assure you, there’s no need, I am better than I have ever been, and I invite you to watch me continue my title reign as I only get better.

“They told me my title is gonna be on the line every week but the truth is that all I ever want to do is fight, so much that I’m even doing it on my off days now. So tune in on Friday and watch me continue to prove how good I am.”

|=|

r/SquaredCircle | WWE Backstage Discussion: Bayley

> um wtf ^110

> I think I just got worked?? ^104

> That Paige-Bayley exchange had to be a work right? ^88

> That felt like a shoot to me, ngl ^93

> Don’t work yourself into a shoot, Brother HH ^79

> I am also feeling worked… ^30

> Def a work ^7

> Totally a work ^5

> paige opened her mouth and bayley said ‘oh you wanna shoot huh?!’ ^99

> some of those felt like she’d had em loaded for years if we’re being real… ^31

> That was a shoot if I’ve ever seen one and you’re dumb if you think otherwise. ^76

> Explain. ^12

> First, Paige isn’t a wrestler or managing anyone rn, so heat between them doesn’t serve any story because there’s no payoff to either one swinging, Second, talking explicitly about a leaked sex tape would never get approved by creative. Third, this is WWE’s ‘news’ show that barely registers to most fans, a fight here would be pointless because no one would see it. And really I wouldn’t be surprised for them to have real life heat both ways. Paige isn’t afraid to talk smack about Bayley and her friends, plus she didn’t really say anything to defend Sasha after her last neck injury even when Sasha was catching crazy abuse for it. And even if it wasn’t Sasha’s fault Paige could very well be holding onto to some bitterness from that kick. I’m speculating but WWE hasn’t written anything that real and angry in a while. ^61

>You make a convincing argument. ^49

> Anyone else get Talking Smack vibes from this?? That Miz/Bryan shoot, I mean. ^58

> Shoot fight, who wins? (Ignoring Paige’s obvious weakness here)

> I still give this one to Bayley, she’s bigger, stronger, and she was angry first and faster.

> Paige seems scrappier and like she’s seen a few pub fights in her day

> This conversation is only happening because Bayley was in a bar fight.

> You right, you right

> I’m just going to enjoy watching everyone work themselves… unless of course this is real which of course I knew the whole time. ^52

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got pretty filler-y not gonna lie, so sorry if this one drags. I initially was going to end it when Renee cut to commercial but there was stuff I still wanted to say and I chose this route instead of reworking it from the middle of the chapter... so sorry if the pacing is funky.
> 
> NOTE: for any Paige fans I didn't write this to attack her or roast her but the chapter took a natural course for this harder version of Bayley so... it is what it

**Author's Note:**

> Look. The reality is that this work is gonna end up hella disrespectful to some people and I shouldn't be writing it. But fuck it we're here so why not. 
> 
> I really thought I would get more in in the first chapter but if I didn't stop somewhere it would have ended up like 10k words and every follow up chapter would struggle to 2500.
> 
> Sorry if there's any confusion about Ambrose/Moxley's name, the choices are intentional. He's Mox to people he's talking to now, Dean/Ambrose to coworkers he's not really seeing anymore. 
> 
> I'm sure there's going to be issues within this chapter regarding grammar and typos but we die like men--no beta folks! If you like this first chapter or are even vaguely intrigued drop a comment! If you have a question, ask! I


End file.
